Is Walmart really soon going to be offering its own brand of cheap wine? It will if you believe
this email that's been circulating around for over a year:
Some Walmart customers soon will be able to sample a new discount item: Walmart's own brand of wine. The world's largest retail chain is teaming up with E&J Gallo Winery of Modesto, California, to produce the spirits at an affordable price, in the $2-5 range. While wine connoisseurs may not be inclined to throw a bottle of Walmart brand wine into their shopping carts, there is a market for cheap wine, said Kathy Micken, professor of marketing at Roger Williams University in Bristol, R.I. She said: "The right name is important."
So, here we go: The top 12 suggested names for Walmart Wine:
12. Chateau Traileur Parc
11. White Trashfindel
10. Big Red Gulp
9. Grape Expectations
8. Domaine Wal-Mart "Merde du Pays" [Kruse, Keith M] (Translated "Shit of the Land")
7. NASCARbernet
6. Chef Boyardeaux
5. Peanut Noir
4. Chateau des Moines
3. I Can't Believe It's Not Vinegar!
2. World Championship Riesling
And the number 1 name for Wal-Mart Wine ..
1. Nasti Spumante
That's obviously a joke (though it is strange that Kathy Micken's name is mentioned specifically... I've emailed her to ask her if she knows anything about this). But here's another strange urban legend involving Walmart and alcohol. It's the
Walmart beer and nappy legend, as told by Media Week (I don't think this one is true either):
WalMart did an analysis of customers’ buying habits and found a statistically-significant correlation between purchases of beer and purchases of nappies. It was decided that the reason for this was that fathers were stopping at Wal-Mart – on instruction from her-indoors – to buy nappies for their babies. Since they could no longer go down to the pub as often, beer was being bought as well. As a result of this finding, the supermarket chain supposedly rearranged the store to have the nappies next to the beer – resulting in increased sales of both.
Comments
I don't know what her sources were, but be sure it was a source serious and reliable enough for her to believe it and present it to the class (it was an example of sales analysis or something, should look it up in my notes 😛).
Besides, I thought the whole point of marketing is to promote something so that people believe it...maybe your professor was pulling one over on you.
NEW YORK -- Wal-Mart's sales of UPC-coded product rose 10.8% in the 12-month period ended September 4, 2004, according to the latest Wal-Mart Channel Service reports, an exclusive service of ACNielsen, the world's leading provider of marketing information and consumer insights.
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Alcoholic beverage sales increased by 16.7%, with liquor up 25%, beer up 17% and wine up 16%. In the liquor category, the biggest gains were in scotch (61%) and vodka (53%). Light beer was up 23%, while malt liquor was down 31%, and regular beer was up 4.8%. Imported table wine (up 88%) was the biggest gainer followed by aperitifs/vermouth (up 33%) while dessert wines fell off by 18%.
Data Mining: Practical machine learning tools with Java implementations," by Ian H. Witten and Eibe Frank, Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco, 2000
More determined hoax hunters can find contact details of the authors at http://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~ml/index.html
I thought that some places don't sell liquor because of licensing problems. In Florida you can get basically any type of high demand alcoholic beverage from your local grocery store. Specialty items can be found in liquor stores, or you can find specialty beverage stores that cater to higher class spirits (fine wines, imported brews..). But my dad is from New Jersey & he says that grocery stores don't have liquor. You have to make a seperate stop at the liquor store. Even in some restaurants you may have to B.Y.O. alcohol. So...wouldn't this not apply in some places? Essentially we could say that the findings are skewed.
"In the U.S., Alcott Ridge Vineyards will be sold only in the stores that currently sell wine."
Obviously Wal-Mart will have to follow the laws in the area they are located.